Not many people have a grasp on what they want to do for the rest of their life when they’re a senior in high school, yet schools want us to decide right before graduation. Little did I know, I knew full well what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, without completely realizing it. I encourage you to sit back, relax, grab a nice cup of whatever, and enjoy the beginning of how I started Loni’s Candles when I was just seventeen years old.
Junior year Christmas, my grandmother gifted me a beginner's candle-making set, along with extra wax and containers. I never thought much of it at that point because I just thought she didn't know what to fully get me for Christmas. No problem, it would just sit around for a few months.
Come after those few months of it sitting around in my room, I got bored one day and decided to pull it out and make a candle. Now, my set had the double boiler method in the instructions. It works, it just was very time-consuming. Anyways, I enjoyed the process. It was fun to smell the new scent come together and out like a candle. I burned it right away, as I was unaware that soy candles need two weeks to cure, and not just when it becomes a solid candle. Still enjoyable.
I made up the rest of the kit and the extra wax, giving the other containers as gifts to family members and friends. Not sure if they were just being nice or if they actually enjoyed the candle, it was enough to convince me that "hey, they like it, what if I made more for other people." So in late September of 2020, I brainstormed the idea with my grandmother, the one who got me the kit, and we started to make a plan.
Being that it was 2020, we did this all over facetime when we figured out what jars we'd get, the wax supplier, coloring, and anything else we needed for me to get my business on the road. Everything at the time came off of Amazon since it didn't seem logical at the time to order wholesale. My grandfather was also a great help during this time when it came to figuring out financials, because, without him, I would've been losing so much money without even making a single cent for myself. Along with the physical production, there needed to be something personalized about showing that this is who we are. So, I used Canva in order to create the business logo and went with Wix for creating my website. All the final pieces were coming together.
When coming up with the name, it was probably the first thing that came to my mind. "Loni's Candles," Think about it, how many people do you personally know who have the name Loni? However, when I was in 3rd grade or so, I made a business called "Kiss co." and I realized I should've kept that now as I've grown past making candles, but it's ok. The name stays.
Come October 12th, 2020, Loni's Candles is made official and ready to get the show on the road. It started off with just 12oz, 7oz, 4oz, and 2oz. Now, we've expanded in both products, as well as shipping destinations and team members! We ship to 12 different countries now including Canada and the United Kingdom. Our team has grown with Lyn being a very proud supporter and best friend of mine since the very beginning. With all of her help at vendor shows and helping with marketing, I invited her to come and officially join the team earlier this year!
As we reach 100 orders, words cannot describe how much joy and thrill the love and support of everyone have brought the two of us. It's amazing and we can't wait to see where this will take us!